At the end of a marathon election campaign, not much is clear except that the Turnbull government’s innovation agenda and its proposed impact on jobs and growth failed to inspire the Australian public, which was focused on a number of other issues.

StartupAUS and the Australian Computer Society are among the organisations who have welcomed Opposition Leader Bill Shorten’s announcement yesterday of Girls into Code, a $4.5 million funding program to help get girls coding if Labor wins next year’s federal election.

It is painfully apparent that even though this is the third iteration of Labor for Innovation, nothing really has been done since the first. The panel was very eager to let us know about what their ideas are, but we have not seen any action or even plans come out of these sessions. My concern here is not that these conversations are not useful, because they are, but that they stop when the events are over. There is no speed to action or testable MVPs that come out of these dialogues.

The business media has been quick to pick up a story published on the Australian Financial Review revealing that the stringent tax rules relating to employee share programs may be meeting its timely demise.